Monthly Archives: August 2010

(In this Oct. 2, 2007, file photo Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Oversight Committee on the mission and performance of the private military contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater..)

Not too long ago a wave of concern had swept through Pakistan when the local media began screaming about Blackwater’s growing infiltration in the country and its dubious activities. The mounting pressure to expel this infamous US defence contractor put the Zardari government in a corner. It could neither ignore public pressure nor could it displease its benefactors in Washington. In the end it chose to vehemently deny these stories. Pakistan’s interior minister, Rehman Malik, said publicly he will resign if Blackwater is found operating anywhere in Pakistan, as if his resignation would be a great loss for the people.

These stories were also denounced as false propaganda by US officials. Responding to accusations that the US Embassy was sponsoring Blackwater, the US Ambassador, Anne Patterson, insisted that “Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan.” She claimed that Pakistani journalists were “wildly incorrect,” and blamed them for compromising the security of US personnel in Pakistan. Secretary Clinton during her visit shortly thereafter also dodged questions on the subject.

The information that has now emerged proves the fear of the Pakistanis to be correct. Not only has Blackwater been working in Pakistan but it grows stronger by the day.Who would know about Blackwater’s presence or absence in Pakistan better than the owner of Blackwater himself?

In response to the debate on whether armed individuals working for Blackwater could be classified as ‘unlawful combatants’ being ineligible for protection under the Geneva Convention, Prince scornfully said, “You know, people ask me that all the time, ‘Aren’t you concerned that you folks aren’t covered under the Geneva Convention in [operating] in the likes of Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan? And I say, ‘Absolutely not,’ because these people …… don’t know where Geneva is, let alone that there was a convention there.”

Could Prince have been clearer on this issue? One wonders how Pakistan’s interior minister or Ambassador Patterson could prove him wrong.One wonders also if it is time for the interior minister to abide by his promise to resign and Ambassador Anne Patterson to apologize to the people of Pakistan for making false statements.

The reality is that the stories were true and hence have refused to go away. The people of Pakistan neither took the US Ambassador seriously, given their distrust for the US and its self serving policies, nor did they give any credence to denials of their own government, knowing full well where these came from. They are convinced that this notorious private contractor is spreading its tentacles in Pakistan for undercover operations on behalf of the US agencies. There is a growing fear that Pakistan could soon witness Iraq and Afghanistan like situations at the hands of Blackwater agents.

Blackwater, described as the most notorious mercenary army which recently underwent rebranding as ‘Xe Services LLC’ in response to legal complications owing to its unlawful activities, has played a crucial role in the American wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan. From the beginning of Bush’s ‘war on terror’ it has undertaken secret and illegal operations that CIA, Pentagon or State Department could not themselves undertake due to Congressional restrictions.

Blackwater earns multimillion dollars revolving contracts because it enables them to circumvent Congressional restrictions and achieve their goals without deploying uniformed soldiers in these countries due to political sensitivities. As Eric Prince put it: “…the private sector can operate there with a very, very small, very light footprint”. And on top of, it there was no fear of accountability. Blackwater operatives are usually deployed under cover, for instance as aid workers.

In Pakistan, as in other countries, Blackwater is honeycombed with CIA, US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), Pentagon and State Department in conducting a variety of operations. Additionally, it is also perceived by the people and the media to be involved in supporting the agenda of destroying the fabric of Pakistan’s nationhood through suicide bombings, fanning religious extremism and supporting nationalist and separatist movements, using Pakistanis whose loyalties are up for sale.

In Pakistan, Blackwater operatives are reportedly positioned in key locations for spying and watching US interests. Jeremy Scahill, author of the NYT Best Seller Blackwater,in his article “The Secret US War in Pakistan” states:“At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, “snatch and grabs” of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan.

He goes on to say that the Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus”. Quoting a military intelligence source, he says: “the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan”.

Jeremy Scahill also reports of Pentagon having contracted a Pakistani company owned by influential Pakistanis having close links with Eric Prince, for ground transportation of large Afghanistan-bound arms shipments from Port Qasim in Karachi. Interestingly, security of the consignments has been entrusted to Blackwater operatives working under disguise.

With the Zardari government cornered in the wake of Blackwater scandal last year, the Americans found to their dislike the Pakistan foreign office dragging its feet over issuance of unlimited number of visas, unlike their past practice. This time the foreign office refused issuance of visas to an unusually large batch of 300 non-diplomatic staff listed as ‘defence officials’ without first examining their purpose of entry and antecedents. The foreign office was also reluctant to meet US demand of granting diplomatic visas to them and allowing privileges like exemption of baggage from customs inspections. Not only was this against the rules but raised suspicions about nature of the cargo these personnel intended bringing into Pakistan.

Washington justified these unusually large numbers saying these personnel were being assigned to process the aid that was being given to Pakistan. “….We just need more visas to put the people in place to help work with Pakistan and to make progress on economic issues, security issues, and agricultural issues,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. Then to prove its point, it held up disbursement of the promised economic assistance. It went further and also held up routine visas for Pakistani diplomats on transfer to Washington.

Pakistan’s foreign office eventually capitulated to Washington’s demands, the crunch apparently coming after the visit of Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Holbrooke to Islamabad, who promised to ‘clear ways for assistance projects’ in exchange for the visas.

The insistence by the US State Department for visas for personnel who did not initially qualify in the judgment of Pakistan’s foreign office makes these personnel appear dubious. They appear even more dubious because reportedly the information given on their visa applications was found incomplete and evasive. This underscored the perception that under the cover of diplomatic visas, more employees of American ‘private contractors’ were being smuggled into Pakistan.

Reportedly, about 180 US Cobra operatives, including Xe personnel, have recently been secretly positioned in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, and Quetta and that more are expected to join them. The US intelligence agencies think that a number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar. There are also reports that about 650 US nationals, including 200 US Marines, are either on their way or have arrived already on multiple entry visas granted by Pakistan Embassy in Washington under special authority given to Pakistan’s Ambassador Haqqani by President Zardari. There was no need for any special authority if the US visa requests qualified under the existing rules. Clearly the rules had to be bended.

Amid fears that the CIA, JSOC, Pentagon and the State Department would not hesitate to pass off their private contractors’ operatives as ‘defence officials’, the bending of visa rules and giving a carte blanche to the US Embassy is a grave folly. If anything, this is an indicator of how far the sovereignty and the security of the state are being compromised by the Zardari government for the sake of economic assistance that the Americans cannot really stop indefinitely. Why does President Zardari forget that the Americans need Pakistan badly and giving economic assistance to Pakistan is in America’s own interest, as much as taking it is in the interest of Pakistan?

(The writer is a Columnist for The Dawn).

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The young Turks, or the triumvirate composed of Enver Pasha, Talat Pasha,& Jamal Pasha, who took over after the revolution, were all three dedicated to the glory of the Turkish Empire ,as an entity ,the new lot wanted administrative and legal reforms, but on the behalf of the Turkification of the society ,instead of the Ottoman name and control.

The young Turks were driven by a Pan-Turanian dream, Enver Pasha particularly coveted the emergence of a state that would embrace all the TURKS of the Central Asia, including those in Russia and China, from Manchuria to Eastern Europe.All united in a single entity ,even ZIA GOKALP, the intellectual who had foolishly erred in signing the Constitution of 1924,converting Turkey into a secular state, was in 1911,propagandizing ‘PAN-TURANIANISM’.

This aspect was sending shudders in Europe as a re-unification of this massive fighting force could un balance the world once again, to the advantage of the Turk, a situation like 1683 could again arise, when the Turk was about to make Germany its north western province, all measures were now adopted to defuse the situation.A new face was picked and launched by the powers, and an Empire was cut to pieces, another major reason was the discovery of OIL, geological surveys of North Africa ,Arabia and Iraq and gulf lands disclosed all held the new black gold.Had it remained in the hands of the Turk, even then today the OPEC would have been of the Turk, and Turkey as a state a power, would have been to be reckoned with. The new face lacked the vision, it was more interested in power being thrust on it, courtesy the western powers, gradually all men who could be a risk in due course of time were removed, as history shows it as a well orchestrated play. The warriors who could have created an issue for the new face, were sent off to fight for the greater glory of an pan-Turanian state. Enver Pasha and his lot, eventually died fighting for it. In the vacuum emerged, the so-called secular state of Turkey, or the Yenni-Turkyie, the flower of the old army was extinguished on the Trans-Caucasian mountains, without any logistics and supplies, and later in time it was here that the name of Musa Kazim Karabekhir Pasha emerges ,the later credit awarded to Mustapha Kamal, for defeating the Russians and the Armenians is wrongly attributed.

History is always re-written, when those in power and the supporting school of thought gradually phase out, then and only then the truth re-surfaces.

Musa Kazim Karabekhir Pasha ,had been commissioned in 1906,and had seen active service on all Turkish fronts, and was a true soldier. He fought the Greeks, and the Bulgars ,he was at ‘Gallipoli ‘in 1915, in 1916 he was in Iraq, in 1917 he was fighting the Russian and Armenians forces bitterly for 10 months, and was promoted a one horse tail Pasha ,as per the treaty of Sevres ‘which ended the world war .The Ottoman Sultan ordered Kara Bekhir Pasha to surrender as per the entente powers resolution, The Pasha refused to surrender .It was much later that Mustapha Kamal arrived at Erz-e-rum, it was Kara Bekhir Pasha who had the only fighting force, and he joined him, It was Kara Bekhir Pasha who had fought later the Russians and the Armenians, and reclaimed his countries lost lands, and decisively defeated the Armenians, by re-taking ‘KARS’ and ‘SARI KAMISH’ and he also captured Alexanderopol. Thus, for not surrendering to his enemy he regained the lost prestige of his country and defeated them too .and now it was Karabekhir, who made the Armenians sign a peace treaty in their own country, ‘on his terms’, and also with the Soviets(Treaty of Kars 13 Oct 1921).

In 1921,Karabekhir Pasha was forcefully retired by Mustapha Kamal’s party on the grounds that Karabekhir Pasha, was insisting that as the British forces stood at the border of south eastern Turkey claiming “KIRKUK”(now, in Iraq),Karabekhir insisted on not abolishing the Caliphate, till the matter of the territories of the Empire had not been resolved with .Which could only happen if the entity of the Empire remained . As the matter of new Turkey and its borders had already been discussed with the new face (Mustapha Kamal), and his group of nihilists poor Karabekhir got the axe.

As Karabekhir, had predicted, the Kurds revolted, and Ataturk, Mustapha Kamal ,surrendered Kirkuk, to the British in Iraq .On which the final confrontation between Mustapha and the Pasha took place ,and as Mustapha held the cards the Pasha was asked to resign .In 1924 Karabekhir formed his party .This was the first opposition party in Turkey, but soon his party was quashed with as he and others were charged with an assassination attempt on Mustapha .Subsequently, in Izmir, the party offices were closed ,and his colleagues imprisoned and under the threat of hanging all were asked to resign from politics. Later, Karabekhir was put under house arrest for the next 15 years. When reports reached Mustapha that he was writing accounts of events as they had happened, his house was raided on the orders of Mustapha and in front of the house his works WERE burnt ,and his books destroyed.

The most unfortunate aspect was that it had been Karabekhir who had given military support to Mustapha when he had been dismissed by the Caliph, when his own staff officers were not willing to obey him .But Karabekhir was a nationalist,the other was an adventurer.

In 2005,a grateful Turkish nation converted his house in a national museum, his later literary works survive but in Turkish a legacy for the future TURKS;

A mention of Ali Adnan Ertkin Menderes ,Fatin Rushtu Zorlu, and Hassan Polatkan, is also a must here, all three were hung, one as the Prime Minister and other two as his colleagues ,they had been the opposition of Ismet Pasha, the man who had stepped in the shoes of Mustapha Kamal. It was the effort of these three and others that free elections were held in Turkey in 1950.As earlier the vote was cast in public in open in front of State Officials,BUT, counted behind the CLOSED doors also, a system evolved by Ismet Inonu. After a military coup led by General Gursul, on the directions of Ismet Pash ,Menders, Zorlu and Polatkan, were tried at Yassidia Island and hung on 16 Sept 1961.

However, on 17 Sept 1990, the remains of the three were re-buried by a State Funeral in Istanbul ,later as per the wishes of TURGUT OZAL, The Prime Minister of Turkey ,he too was buried next to Adnan Menderes.

The remains of Enver Pasha, who had died fighting the Russians at Abe-e-Darraya (Dushanbe) on 04 august 1922, Too were brought back and he too was buried with full honours, in Istanbul in 1996.

So we see that good nations never forget men who sincerely work for them, they never die others do. (to be continued)

(The writer has over 26 years of experience in Investigative Historical Research)

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USA has made a lot of noise on Osama, being not only alive, but cocooned in Pakistan. The not so long ago, visit, by Clinton, to these shores, was on the same lines. The Pakistani public is absolutely fed up with the American government statements, and are widely interpreted as full of sound and fury signifying nothing and are in total negation of the ground realities and nothing to do with the way things really are. Pakistan has suffered tremendously in this War on Terror so what was expected of an ally in our hour of hardship was to try and make an effort to solve the issues being faced by Pakistan. One of the foremost is to stop India from violating the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.

The world has not forgotten,the quiet disappearance of the US after making a deal with the Soviets on their withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989. The statement of the US on the eve of their elopement from Vietnam said, “The solidarity and integrity of South Vietnam is the corner stone of the American foreign policy.” Still echoes in the ears of people who care to analyze. Someone very rightly said, to be America’s friend is dangerous but to be an ally; FATAL.

I would therefore hardly take Clinton seriously on her comments because she is as clueless now as she was when her Arkansas boy was in the White House. Therefore if she was clueless about her boy and his activities just next door it is hardly conceivable that she would have any concrete information about the CIA trained and planted Saudi Boy placed by them in the mountains across the oceans thousands of miles away. The US it seems has no longer any diplomat of reasonable integrity with substance in their approach but what we have been seeing in the last two decades are material like Colin Powell Rice and now Clinton. Talking about the first two is a sheer waste of time because they were the echo of the voice of their master whose sanity is now being questioned even in his own Country. We shall come back to her somersault on her statement during her visit to India but for now let us examine the reality of Osama bin Laden hiding in Pakistan.

Only if she had done her homework on Osama bin Laden before she came here to talk about him on the television live, it could save her and the US a lot of embarrassment but embarrassment is the one thing which bothers Americans least as it comes daily from Chavez and Ahmedinejad as a three times daily dose. Let us review all that has been said by the West on Osama bin Laden.

1- The information that Osama Bin Laden is dead, first came from sources in Afghanistan and Pakistan many years ago,the fugitive died in December [2001] and was buried in the mountains of southeast Afghanistan. With an ego the size of Mount Everest, Osama bin Laden would not have, could not have, remained silent for so long if he were still alive. He always liked to take credit even for things he had nothing to do with. Would he remain silent for nine months and not trumpet his own survival? (New York Times, July 2002).

Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years. According to Le Figaro, in 2000 he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan( Guardian)

FBI: Bin Laden ‘probably’ dead; The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counter-terrorism chief, Dale Watson, says he thinks Osama bin Laden is “probably” dead. [BBC]. The editor-in-chief of a London-based Arab news magazine said a purported will it published in the year [2001] by Osama bin Laden, and shows “he’s dying or he’s going to die soon.” [CNN]. Usama bin Laden has died a peaceful death due to an untreated lung complication, the Pakistan Observer reported, citing a Taliban leader who allegedly attended the funeral of the Al Qaeda leader. “The Coalition troops are engaged in a mad search operation but they would never be able to fulfill their cherished goal of getting Osama alive or dead,” the source said. [Fox News].

The desire to revive Osama is only to justify the continuation of the War on Terrorism. Gordon Duff, Senior Editor Veteran News, USA, in a recent article states,” Has the United States established exactly what its strategic interests are in the region? Oil is flowing freely as is heroin. Money is flowing into the region by the plane load and back out, into banks in Dubai, Tel Aviv and Switzerland. Is $500 billion a year being spent to defend Israel from invasion by, well, we aren’t sure? What is being spent to secure Israel, or empower Israeli recklessness, is nearly one third of America’s entire budget. Wouldn’t it simply be cheaper to give Israel the United States or do they own it already? “The continual embarrassment of watching Mrs. Clinton on her hunt for the missing Bin Laden, as though she has nothing else to castigate Pakistan for….

The West needs to review its arrogant policies followed in this part of the world. They need to answer some questions: what has been the ratio of suicide attempts since the invasion of Afghanistan? How sharply have the terrorist attacks risen since then? How many US soldiers have actually been killed on ground as compared to the soldiers, civilians: women, old people and children from other side of the fence? At the end of the day, what political and military victory has USA achieved by attacking and invading Afghanistan? USA is once again contemplating reaching an understanding with the Taliban in Afghanistan. So what were these eight years all about? Gordon Duff was right after all.(Excerpt from Article from Yasmeen Ali: Osama: Dead or Alive?)

Clinton is clueless. Admiral Sirohey told me in an interview that both U.S. and Pakistani intelligence agencies confirmed his death in December of 2001. Sirohey referred to him as a “ghost” that the respective governments like to pull out once in awhile for convenience. Michael Hughes said.

The story is endless but I do believe that Clinton is clueless about it because her puppet masters are smart people, please do not forget that they duped a four star General Colin Powell into issuing a statement in the UN about Iraq possessing WMDs and going ahead with their nuclear programme. The General however had integrity and he resigned on discovery .

It is strange that a lady in her position gets intoxicated by the exuberance of her own verbosity and she goes on to threaten Pakistan that the there could be very serious consequences should there be another incident like the one at Times Square. My dear lady this warning should be referred to your almighty FBI CIA or NYPD who organized a silly childish false flag operation to pressurize Pakistan. In any case let this be clearly understood that Pakistan is not Iraq Afghanistan, Panama or any Banana Republic and if Pakistan were to withdraw its support to the US war effort it will not be long that the Americans and their Allies would be feeling the impossibility of the situation. If anything we have very little to lose ,my fair lady please drive this message home loud and clear because your planted stooges here are just a matter of minutes and not hours. Please try not to come to that otherwise you have another Reza Shah and Marcos marking time.

(The writer is a Consultant in fields of Security and Public Health Hygiene, Female Education and Crisis Management).

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The young Turkish Sultan, entered on his reign nominally as an independent sovereign, his minister, Rashid Pasha, who had gained, in an unusual degree the confidence of western statesmen, do these lines sound familiar ,from 1947 to date, we have too, been victims of ministers thrust upon us. The real policy makers, who have implemented, economic and educational policies sub servant to the western mindset, the theory of global village being part of it, with Europe as the policeman. Amongst our intellectuals even the concept of nationalism barely exists, hence only a few oppose these so called reforms in our country, Reverting back to Turkey, of post 1839,so Rashid Pasha, passed an edict, called “Hatti-shariff of Gulhane” which announced the speedy establishment of institutions “which were to ensure to all subjects of the sultan, a freedom, which was not awarded to them before “the military continued to be the target of the reforms, with the Janissaries out of the way, only the old Ottoman Army now stood in the way for the western powers. Measures were taken to introduce and replace the “Mektab & Medrese” system of education. A new system based on the French Model was now introduced, called the'” Millet System”, which gave autonomy, in the religious matters to the Christians of the empire. It also allowed the western business groups to enter the Turkish markets, which later proved to be a serious threat to the progress in Turkey. Under this new system the non-Muslims were also allowed to have their own, legal and educational systems. The Christian missionaries opened western educational schools, by the end of 19th century, 1500 such institutions were all over the Turkish Empire, with no intellectual worth his salt, left to oppose the new thought process. The Freemasons, and other Christians, changed and created a new class of men, the champions of a new order called “Secularism”.

The same Turk who under the leadership of, Kara Mustapha, the Grand Vizer, was at Vienna, in 1683,who with an army of 500,000,was thinking of making Germany his new north western, province of the Empire, now had Sultans ,attending, like Abdul Aziz. The Paris exhibition of 1867,and later going to London to receive from the Queen of the British, Victoria, “The Order of Garter” meaning thereby, “the prime order of Christendom “which was awarded to the following five: The Prelate, or the Bishop of Winchester: The Chancellor, the Registrar, the King of Arms, or the Chief Herald(servant)at Windsor, the seat of the British Monarch, and lastly to the Usher, the man in charge of the “black rod:”An ebony stick which had a gold top of lion, the symbol of British Monarchy. The Usher was the Sergeant at Arms of the monarch in the House of Lords,.

Thus such a fate befell, the caliph of Muslims and the Sultan of the Turks, when he stooped to accept the ‘Order of the Garter’ from the British Queen, it was this Sultan and his team of advisors, who bankrupted the state too, for the services rendered to the west he was allowed the privilege of joining their self created elitist club. It was in 1853,that the term, ‘the sick man’ was coined by the west and the process of the Empire’s balkanization started. Here in our own country, which too, is a target of western onslaught, and already maps of balkanization, are afloat of Pakistan .The movement amongst our misdirected regionalist leaders, and champions. Naturally, as was the case in Turkey then, they too, have blessings of some powers. The Europeans had concentrated in Lebanon and western Balkans, and repeatedly Muslims were massacred in these lands, with no janissary’s left, and the old Turkish army likewise clipped, and poor leadership at the statecraft level what else could one accept, but the arrival of a new thought, process, called secularism.

Unfortunately, in the last 20 years of the 19th century, all major industries of the Turkish Empire had been handed over to the foreign firms, the railways, mines, and the armament industries. Throughout, these 20 years Turkey had been gradually sold out and pawned off to foreigners. Can anybody also compare a set similar to what had happened a100 years back in Turkey? A secret revolutionary society had been formed in the period of Ali Pasha, the Grand Vizier, around 1867 or so called the young, “Ottomans” poets like Namik Kemal Bey, and Zia Pasha, had fled to Paris, and were inciting the public. Good men and a few honest statesmen had held the tottering empire. On the other hand, under the shelter of these capitulations, British, American, French and ,later, Germans stared schools. The later famous Robert College at Istanbul and the American University at Beirut arose out of the tanzimats. The mektab and madrassah died ,they were blamed for being in the way of progress of a new Turkey. What the Turk failed to realize was that it was this very education well established with which, they were at the doors and inside Europe, whenever they wished. With the new mode of education the Turk not only lost the empire but himself too. The cause of success had been the education and the “esnafs “or the guilds, these esnafs, were provided special privileges ,thus trade and handicrafts obtained an important status and a system of self government among part of Muslim population of the empire as far as their occupational rights were concerned. As foreign matters and products were allowed to enter the markets, the old guilds died. But then this will also happen in our own country when India will be allowed to dump their products. They have already entered in the vegetable and livestock market. The gradual, decay in the Ottoman Empire, cost here between, 1878 and 1882, an area of 232,000 square kilometers of territory and a loss of 6 million subjects too.

Thus started a movement in Salonika called The Committee of Union and Progress. The Turkish soldiers in Macedonia, surrounded as they were by a large Christian in community, became part of this set up ,headed by the Jews and the Freemasons of Salonika, and the Germans. Young officers were freely invited to attend these meetings. And as they rose in power, so did the German influence too, and, Germany appeared as the champion of the young Turks. Meanwhile the forces of reaction were gathering, and, seeing the weakness both the liberals and the young Turks, struck, and occupied the Assembly Building on 13 April 1909.However,a detachment of 25,000 Macedonian Army under Mahmud Shevket Pasha ,marched on Istanbul(Constantinople), his Chief of Staff, was Mustapha Kamal. And so Mustapha came on the scene.

(The writer has over 26 years of experience in Investigative Historical Research).

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Islam & Christianity

Religion is religion, when it is believed in as ‘Free from any defect’. A religion ceases to be a religion when its ultimate principles is believed ‘Not to be absolute and unchangeable’. The Fundamentals of the Faith cannot be subject to the ‘Law of Evolution’, like social institutions.

The Holy Quran is preserved and the ‘SUNNA’ (the social life as led by the Prophet) ‘ is recorded as far as possible. The divine part of the “SHARIA” (The Islamic Law or Jurisprudence), being a divine act, is in a state of “Absolute Perfection”; Hence it is exempt from any evolution or progress.

As to the term, SECULARISM, it was coined by an Englishman, named George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906). He was convicted on account of Blasphemy, in a public lecture, and was sentenced to undergo a six months imprisonment and upon his release he invented the term “Secularism” – as descriptive of his “Opinions”. And so, he also established the “Reasoner” in support of his NEW THEORY, in the various books he wrote. The author of the term “Secularism” has the dubious honor for being convicted for a second time also, for publishing a illegal newspaper. He was the author of a number of books, including two volumes of his own reminiscences, “Bygones worth Remembering” (1905). He died at Brighton, England on the 22nd of January 1906.

All works of the author, of this term, have been in support of his argument which justifies the separation of state politics or administration from religious or church matters. It is pertinent to note here, that, secular education is a system of education / imparting knowledge in which religious teaching is excluded in the school teachings.

Pakistan is a country composed of people having one faith, which is ISLAM. Christians, Hindu and Parsees, remain a fraction of our total population. We are an Islamic State and as a State it is unfortunate, that we have a tendency to adhere, and still cling with, the laws and traditions of our previous rulers. As to the mindset and people, who still think as per the western education and see things as per their perceptions, and as they gradually ease out, the national character of our nation will re-emerge, in which no doubt exists, as the chain reaction is already in motion. The point to be borne in mind here is; what is good for Christianity Need not be good for us as Moslem’s. Christianity never had the chance to flourish as did Islam.

Islam, immediately after it’s coming in force and establishing itself as a world power in the known corners of the then known corners of the world and since the last almost 1400 years, has flourished without a break as a power and a code of life. Christianity, on the other hand, originated within a community that was under the domination of a powerful state and that had no hopes for political independence. Islam on the other hand flourished among a people, free from external domination, which had the capacity and established an independent state. And a state means a public authority which has the power to enforce its judicial rules over the individuals whose safety it undertakes. At the time of rise of Christianity, the Roman State and its laws were in force. Christianity found a political organization already in existence, and thus it took the matters of organizing a government and maintaining laws as matters outside the concern of religion. It accepted the separation of state and religion, as a principle, and formulated it in the slogan, “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto god that, which is gods”.

Thus, Christianity seems, at first sight, like a religion that has left judicial powers entirely to the government and has concerned itself exclusively with pronouncements on matters of righteousness and ethical teachings.

The real nature of things, however, was not that way at all. Christianity by accepting the State outside of Religion was relegating the state to a non-sacred realm. It did not appropriate the state to itself, because it looked down on it. This attitude, originally, was due to the fact that the Romans were foreign to the early Christians; both from the point of view of nationality and religion. And this did not disappear, even when the conditions changed. Although Christianity took on political government outside of the realm of religion, it nevertheless brought to the world a new government under the name of heavenly kingdom.

Thus, two kinds of governments came into existence in Christendom, one as the non-sacred, temporal government, and the other as the sacred spiritual government.

Now, ‘IF’ Christianity had not found an already existing order of state at the time of its birth, it would have attempted undoubtedly to create one. And then, it would have regarded it as a sacred being of its own creation. As this government would have been within the religion, and as such a sacred institution, no need would have been felt to establish a spiritual government. If this had happened, there would be no duality of temporal and spiritual governments, BUT, something similar to the case existing in ISLAM.

Europeans who have compared Christianity and Islam usually believe that Islam’s acceptance of judicial matters as part of religion, and of the state organization, as part of religious organization, is a DEFECT, in Islam. More so, unfortunately, our own Muslims and Pakistanis, born and bred in western circles, who have received their ideas from the same sources of knowledge, as the Christians do, also think like them.

However, when the problem is investigated more carefully, it appears that this is NOT a defect but, on a contrary, ‘A MERIT’. In Islam religious provisions are divided into three categories; those relating to piety, to morality and to judicial affairs. All of them are religious because they are sacred. Religion, is the sum total of all beliefs, that are taken as sacred by the “Ummah”. Aesthetic and rational rules are non-sacred and therefore they are outside of religion.

Islam takes ethical and legal rules as religious rules and thus makes them sacred. This conception is contrary to the interpretations of ethics and law, from the point of view of utilitarianism, historical materialism, and the doctrine of social contract. And this creates among the Moslems the bond of “Ummah” which goes beyond the limits of national boundaries, a natural threat to the west of such a bond. And this has always existed. This was the rational of breakup of ottoman / Osmanli Empire, as was also seen when British defused the Khilafat Movement in British India, or they have tried their best not to let Pan Islamism germinate. It is not that in Christianity, the effort on the part of the Pope, has not been there .The “Popes” used every charm in their inventory to claim authority over the political matters, but the Christian rulers declined to accept such claims because, according to rulers – Monarchist, no power can overrule them. And in the Orthodox Church, as we see in the historical perspectives, that the Christian religion was indeed sacrificed for the sake of the ego of the Christian rulers.

The idea and the theme of separating Church from the State originated within the sphere of these petty kings of Christendom. And the history, or political history, of Europe is full of such “CONCORDATS” (agreements between a state and the Church on Church affairs) continuously changing and always dragging both sides into conflicts.

The French parliament decided to separate these two powers from each other, completely. From that time onward, France did not have an ‘Official Religion’ and the Churches ceased to have any official character. They remained, just a private association, under the “Statute of Associations”. As was seen in the Ottoman Empire, the French Concord of 1801 became the source of inspirations of the French Oriented Ottoman Intellectuals whose culmination was the Turkish Constitution of 1924 where secularism became part of it.

Continued….

(The writer has over 26 years of experience in Investigative Historical Research).

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The announcement by the US administration of troop withdrawal from Iraq brings about the end of an ill conceived ,poorly planned and badly executed adventure in Iraq costing the US, billions of dollars and nearly over four thousand young dynamic and vibrant American lives. It was one of those fancifully philosophic baby of the mind of an unbalanced George Bush at the helm of affairs in the White House assisted by his ill reputed “Texan Gang” of Cheney R.Ashcroft and General Powell ,later, by Rice, as sanity prevailed on the four star general who had been led to oblivion by his supreme commander by being his master’s voice. There was the second and third round of US leadership out to get their pound of flesh from the carcass of the huanted Iraq. The financial benefits gained by investing the billions of dollars of the American taxpayer’s money and the thousands of gallons of spilled blood of the dynamic and patriotic Americans and innocent men ,women and children of Iraq is something that the people of America should be looking into.

The only positive sign that surprised the rest of the world was the stand taken by the “now pliant” United Nations for not endorsing the American aggression in Iraq, hence, forcing the US to form a coalition of the willing poodles and lackeys in the world to help them invade Iraq on the pretext that Iraq was a threat to world peace because it was amassing weapons of mass destruction along with chemicals and biological weapons contrary to the findings of the United Nations. Never before in the history of the United States the Congress and Senate had been blackmailed and held hostage into ratifying the action of greedy US leadership. The American had lost the war just by starting it. The irony of the situation is that the US and UK had declared that Iraq and the reason for their authenticity of the claim lay in the fact that it was both the US and UK that supplied them the WMDs and technology to prevent Iraq from losing the war to Khumaini’s Iran. It was Donald Rumsfield who embraced Hussein and proclaimed “He is the Mujahid of Islam”. A beautiful photograph of this was published in the Newsweek in December 1983. Ironically it was the same Donald Rumsfield who as Secretary Defense later planned the invasion that toppled Saddam.

The cost in terms of dollars and human life in a conflict of this kind and magnitude the figures are often disputed but if we calculate from the periodic casualty report from different sources they following numbers cannot be dispute for the United States till July 2010:

U.S. combat deaths over 4,400

U.S. wounded: over 31,000

Iraqi civilians killed will probably never accurately be reported but for the entire duration of the war that numbers into the hundreds of thousands does not seem an exaggeration. In addition there are Iraqi military and coalition military deaths and injuries in the tens of thousands. The interesting aspect of this turmoil was probably not noticed by most of the Americans who matter or they found it convenient to ignore it. Whether it was 9/11 or Iraq or Hamas or Hezbollah it is basically Arabs and the other Muslims who joined the Arabs was in reaction to the excesses committed on the Arabs by Israel with the complete backing and support of the US. The US has been funding Israel for over 40 years and the military hardware that Israel uses is another burden on the American tax payers

If the Americans do not do some soul searching I think they should get ready to pay with the blood of the American people the interest of Israel. Let us go back to the beginning for a while, why was Iraq singled out for attack although no link could be found between Iraq and Al Qaeda . Rice, in an official address, later stated ,it was an action based on “bad intelligence”.

The furor over WMDS and the purchase of Uranium turned out to be concocted. In my opinion a very big reason for the Iraqi invasion was to get the control of Iraqi oil and keep it on ground to escalate the price. Again the neon cons like Wolfowitz and his supporters were interested in putting up American bases in Iraq from where they could regulate oil supply but more importantly remove any threat posed to the state of Israel. For some time Iraq started accepting the payments of oil in Euros and if this was allowed to continue then Euro would probably become the world reserve currency and not dollars. This could have a negative impact in the US economy and could even cause its collapse in the long run. Therefore with the control of Iraq’s oil the US could, thereby maintain the dollar as the reserve currency.

I quote Stephen J. Sniegoski, “The American Conservative criticizing the rationale for the projected U.S. attack on Iraq, the veteran diplomatic historian Paul W. Schroeder noted (only in passing) “What is possibly the unacknowledged real reason and motive behind the policy — security for Israel.” If Israel’s security were indeed the real American motive for war, Schroeder wrote, “It would represent something to my knowledge unique in history. It is common for great powers to try to fight wars by proxy, getting smaller powers to fight for their interests. This would be the first instance I know where a great power (in fact, a superpower) would do the fighting as the proxy of a small client state.” Unquote.

The suggestion that the war with Iraq is being planned at Israel’s behest, or at the instigation of policy makers whose main motivation is trying to create a secure environment for Israel, is strong. Many Israeli analysts believe this. The Israeli commentator Akiva Aldar recently observed frankly in a Ha’aretz column that Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and their fellow strategists “are walking a fine line between their loyalty to American governments and Israeli interests.” The suggestion of dual loyalties is not a verboten subject in the Israeli press, as it is in the United States. Peace activist Uri Avery, who knows Israeli Prime Minister Sharon well, has written that Sharon has long planned grandiose schemes for restructuring the Middle East and that “the winds blowing now in Washington remind me of Sharon. I have absolutely no proof that the Bushies got their ideas from him. But the style is the same.”

Does it need any kind of super intelligence to see where the Israelis are driving the Americans to protect their interest but they are building up relation of hate retribution and vendetta in the Arab world in particular and Muslim world in general against the American people?

I leave this for the readers to determine.

(Th writer is a Consultant in fields of Security and Public Health Hygiene, Female Education and Crisis Management. This is his first article).

Scientists building the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos referred to the coordinates where a test device was detonated as “point zero.” When the horror of nuclear warfare was unleashed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the term “Ground Zero” entered our lexicon. The expression has come to mean the epicenter of a catastrophic event, be it a nuclear detonation, a disease epidemic or an earthquake. It is the point from which damage spreads, whether it’s radioactive fallout or a deadly contagion.

That the site of the World Trade Center has come to be known as Ground Zero illustrates how the American public has come to fetishize the attacks of 9/11. It’s not an apt analog for the physical destruction that resulted from the attacks on the World Trade Center. But it is an appropriate metaphor for the virulent and socially acceptable bigotry against Muslim Americans that has radiated out from Ground Zero and spread across the United States.

One thing is clear: the feverish discourse about Muslims’ role in American society is not about the proposal to build an Islamic community center a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site. Park 51, as it’s being called, merely let an ugly genie out of the bottle. The dark stain of Islamophobia had spread far and wide long before the controversy erupted.

In May, a man walked into the Jacksonville Islamic Center in Northeast Florida during evening prayers and detonated a pipebomb. Fortunately, there were no injuries. (If the man had been Muslim and the House of worship a Christian church, the incident would have garnered wall-to-wall coverage, but while the story got plenty of local press it was ignored by CBS News, Fox, CNN and MSNBC.)

It was the most serious of a series of incidents in which mosques far from the supposedly hallowed earth of Ground Zero have been targeted. A mosque inMiami, Florida, was sprayed with gunfire last year. Mosques have been vandalized or set aflame in Brownstown, Michigan; Nashville, Tennessee;Arlington, Texas (where the mosque was first vandalized and then later targeted by arsonists); Taylor, South Carolina; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Eugene, Oregon;Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Tempe, Arizona; and in both Northern and Southern California. A mosque in a suburb of Chicago has been vandalized four times in recent years.

In May, an Arab man wasbrutally beaten in broad daylight in New York by four young men. According to the victim’s nephew, “They used the bad word. ‘The mother bleeping Muslim, go back to your country.’ They started beating him and after that he don’t know what happened.” A Muslim woman in Chicago was assaulted by another woman who took offense at her headscarf. A Muslim teacher in Florida was sent a white powdery substance in the mail. In San Diego, a man in his 50s became so incensed by the sight of an American of Afghan descent praying that he assaulted him after screaming, “You idiot, you mother f**ker, go back to where you came from.”

The perpetrators of these hate crimes are clearly unhinged, but they’re not operating in a vacuum. They’re being whipped into a frenzy by cynical fearmongers on the Right. Writing for Tablet magazine, Daniel Luban astutelycalls the dark spread of Islamophobia, “the new Anti-Semitism.”

Many of the tropes of classic anti-Semitism have been revived and given new force on the American right. Once again jingoistic politicians and commentators posit a religious conspiracy breeding within Western society, pledging allegiance to an alien power, conspiring with allies at the highest levels of government to overturn the existing order. Because the propagators of these conspiracy theories are not anti-Semitic but militantly pro-Israel, and because their targets are not Jews but Muslims, the ADL and other Jewish groups have had little to say about them. But since the election of President Barack Obama, this Islamophobic discourse has rapidly intensified.

In Tennessee, an elected official, Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey, suggestedthat Muslims shouldn’t be accorded the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment. “Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult whatever you want to call it,” he said. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, the House’s second-ranking Republican, said of the Ground Zero controversy, “America’s built on the rights of free expression, the rights to practice your faith, but come on.” (Reporter Eric Kleefeld wrote that Cantor was invoking the “’come on’ exception to America’s freedom of religion.”)

An Oklahoma lawmaker is pushing a ballot measure “that would prohibit courts from considering international or sharia law when deciding cases.” He said it was a “preemptive strike” against “liberal judges” who want to “undermine those founding principles” of America. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrichcompared the organizers of the Park 51 project in downtown Manhattan (including the imam who was sent by none other than George W. Bush to represent the United States in its outreach to the Muslim world) with the Nazis. The American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, a prominent figure within the religious Right,argued that “permits should not be granted to build even one more mosque in the United States of America” because “each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government.” Just weeks after the mosque bombing in Florida, right-wing talk-radio host Michael Berry told his audience, “If you do build a mosque, I hope somebody blows it up. … I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up. And I mean that.” He added: “It’s right-wing radicals like me that are going to keep this country safe for you and everyone else.”

The results of these incessant smears are predictable. According to a pollcommissioned by Time magazine, one in three Americans believes that Muslims should be barred from running for president; a similar number said they’d oppose the construction of a mosque in their own neighborhood, and almost three in 10 said Muslims shouldn’t be allowed to serve on the Supreme Court.

According to the New York Times, “Opposition to new mosques has become almost commonplace.” During a public hearing with Muslim leaders to discuss a proposed mosque on Staten Island, miles from Manhattan, “the tenor of the inquiry became so fraught that the meeting eventually collapsed in shouting around 11pm, prompting the police and security guards to ask everyone to leave.” The Times’ account of what happened before the cops broke up the fracas is telling. “The meeting’s single moment of hushed silence” came when a Marine who had served two tours in Afghanistan working as a mediator with local tribes took the microphone.

After the sustained standing ovation that followed his introduction, he turned to the Muslims on the panel: “My question to you is, will you work to form a cohesive bond with the people of this community?” The men said yes.

Then he turned to the crowd. “And will you work to form a cohesive bond with these people — your new neighbors?”

The crowd erupted in boos. “No!” someone shouted.

It’s ugly, and it can only get worse as Republicans seek to “nationalize” the issue in time for the midterm elections. (According to The Hill, John Cornyn, R-Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee “believes the mosque set to be built near Ground Zero in New York City will be a campaign issue this fall.”) Right-wingers have started referring to the Park 51 project as “the Obamosque.” They see fear and loathing of Islam as a potent social issue in an era when overtly racist messages invite a political backlash and gay-bashing is gaining less traction among voters. And with prominent Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada caving in to the hateful rhetoric, bigotry against American Muslims is becoming an acceptable and bipartisan affair.

It’s an extraordinarily dangerous game, not only for the American Muslim community but for U.S. national security as well. Ali Soufan, a former FBI agent who has interrogated several dangerous terrorists, wrote this week that “when demagogues appear to be equating Islam with terrorism” it reinforces “the message that radicalizers are selling: That the war is against Islam, and Muslims are not welcome in America.” He added: “from a national security perspective, our leaders need to understand that no one is likely to be happier with the opposition to building a mosque than Osama Bin Laden. His next video script has just written itself.”

Fortunately, the hysteria over the Islamic center in downtown Manhattan has produced no fatal attacks to date. But as the rhetoric continues to get hotter, good people — those who embrace American values of pluralism and religious liberty — need to stand up to the hate and confront these views before we have a body count on our hands, not after.

While the world’s rich dole out money to help Pakistan’s flood victims, Pakistan’s rich political elite refuses to budge. By now we should have been seeing members of this ruling elite buying tents, building shelters and providing gallons of clean drinking water to the homeless millions.

But in every flooded district of the country, you will see Pakistani civilian and military volunteers. But not the politicians.

Consider this:

On the first day of a nationwide Saudi campaign to raise funds for the victims of floods in Pakistan on Monday, 17 Aug. 2010:

This is not to mention the sight of Saudi women who thronged public aid collection camps in different Saudis cities and were photographed by the international media donating their jewelry to King Abdullah’s campaign in support of Pakistan.

Compare this to the reaction of the Pakistani elite:

- Pakistan’s president, a billionaire in dollar terms by some accounts, is yet to donate anything or even be seen donating anything anywhere. There were reports he donated Rs. five million to a fund named after his son and daughter, and only Rs. one million to the government fund. This is less than what he might have spent wandering in France and Britain earlier this month.

- The most shocking part is that the PPPP is trying to milk large companies out of relief money for private party funds. This means that the party is quietly trying to direct aid money to private funds rather than relief funds run by the government or the Pakistani military. The ruling party is reported to have convened a meeting in the business hub city of Karachi where leading businessmen were asked to donate to a Bakhtawar Fund, named after the president’s elder daughter. The meeting was chaired by president’s sister, senator Faryal Talpur. But she failed to get a pledge for a single rupee from any attending businessmen.

- The Sharif family has donated Rs. 10 million, which is peanuts compared to what the family could have donated. Not to mention that no one knows how this amount will be spent. Pakistanis are yet to see any member of the Sharif clan seeing off trucks carrying relief goods or opening clean water plants in the affected areas.

- None of the one thousand members of the federal and provincial parliaments have been sighted at any of the affected regions helping people or distributing aid. If anything, a few of the shameless politicians were quick to jump in front of visiting TV crews. One of them, from Sindh, was seen seated in a boat run by the army for the media giving out an interview to a leading anchor. The politician was pretending as if he was organizing the rescue operations in Sindh.

- Forget helping people, a senior member of the PPPP from Balochistan is accusing two influential feudal members of PPPP Sindh of diverting flood waters to Balochistan and creating a humanitarian crisis there to save their vast landholdings in Sindh. This is a serious allegation that merits investigation and stern punishment if proven. But who will do it? And what is more important: private feudal landholdings or the lives of thousands of poor people? Don’t ask Pakistani politicians, obviously.

- An unusual situation in Pakistan is that the country’s closed club of political elite monopolizes large chunks of the economy. So these politicians control everything, benefit from inflation, pay no taxes and are under no obligation to donate generously when fellow countrymen are in need.

- The Pakistan Army donated a day’s salary of its soldiers, who come from poor backfrounds, for the relief effort. No politician is yet to take a similar step. And we are talking about a bunch of people who arrive at the federal parliament in Islamabad in expensive imported luxury cars, wearing expensive watches and jewelry and looking awash in wealth.

- The millionaires and billionaires in the Pakistani business community, unlike the politicians, are donating directly to the victims in the affected areas but refuse to route the money through the coffers of a government run by this political elite.

The conclusion is this: while the country reels under a humanitarian tragedy, it is the Pakistani middle class, the Pakistani business class, a couple of religious charities and the armed forces that have come to the rescue of their fellow countrymen during a disaster. They will always step up to help their countrymen.

Pakistan’s politicians, among them the nation’s richest, will disappeared in a flash during a crisis like they have done now.

NOTE:THIS REPORT IS A CROSS POST FROM PAKNATIONALIST .COM

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The Secularist Movement was started by certain elements which were the real pressure groups, as well the intellectual class of the later Ottoman Empire, whose efforts, were the culmination and introduction of the idea of secularism in the new constitution of a new Turkey in 1924.These people, who were infused with this thought process, brought a disaster for the Muslims of Turkey. The purpose of highlighting Ottoman Turkey as a case study, though very briefly and practically in general outline, is to state that, just because the Turk leadership of that time had done a blunder due to pressure of the then superpowers, we need not think about it as an example to follow, for reasons, as will be explained. These blunders have resulted in a chain reaction of events. A study of which however brief is a must. The intellectual class which had spearheaded this move were ethnically and religiously not the actual Turks, as the term goes. I had earlier stated, that the composition of the Turkish Empire were fifty percent Muslims, as late as 1910.However,at the time of the start of the 1839 and 1856 so-called reforms ,”tanzimats”, the Muslim population was much less as in between this period and by 1910 the Empire had lost a lot of its area, courtesy, it’s weak sultans and the leadership factor .

The powers of that time were obsessed with breaking Turkey, as they are with us now, with the balakanistion map so eagerly being propagated for us, and its merits too. Reverting back to the Empire, and its, population as it stood, at the start of 20th century ,the inhabited; Iannina, Scutari, Kossovo and Monastir. They were Muslims Orthodox, as Albanians, as well as CatholicChristians. The Bulgarians, inhabited, Salonica, Kossova as well Monastir. All were Orthodox Christians. Here it is pertinent to note that the Headquarter of ‘The Committee of Union and Progress was based at Salonica, or Salonika. The Freemason Jews, lent a powerful support to the work of the Committee. The later leader of Turks, Mustapha Kamal, was a key figure of this organization.

I had stated earlier, the Empire had300,000 Jews all over. Business and commerce was in their hands. The Greeks followed next. What happened to Adan Meneders, and his hanging much later ,on 16 sept.1961,along with Fatin Rustu Zorlu and Hasan Polatkan, was an interconnected sequence, spread over decades of resistance against secularism. The Servians, were in Kossova and the Christians, the Greeks, were spread all over doing business in the Empire, and were Orthodox as well as Greco-Christains. The Kutzo-Vlachs(Macedonians) were Christians. The Lazes, found in Trebizond and East were Muslims as well as Christians. TheKurds were in Erzerum, Sivas, Seert, Angora, and Mosul, all were Muslims. The Circassians, spread all over Asia Minor were Muslims. The Arabs, in the Empire, were in Adana, Aleppo, Syria, Baghdad, Sanjak of Jerusalem, Hejaz, Yemen, Beirut and Basra. All being Muslim Armenians, lived in Istanbul, as well in ,Vilayets, of Turkey, in Europe. Also in Sivas, Angora, Trebizond, Adana, Erzirum, Bittlis, Mosul, Van and Aleppo. All were Gregorian and Christian Catholics.

The Jews had spread in Europe courtesy the Empire, on whose destruction they were bent upon. They retained the jugular of business, in the Empire. a sect of Jews called the Samaritan, were confined to Napluze, a Vilayet of Beirut,(province).The Chaldeans or the Nestorians, who then spoke Syro-Chaldaic, and partly Arabic too, were in Baghdad, Mosul, Aleppo, Beirut, and Mamurat -ul-Aziz.

The Melchites, or the Syrian, were Greco-Catholics, whowere Greeks, ethnically, spoke Arabic, but, were united Orthodox Christians, as went the classifications and lived all over Syria. The Jacobites/Syrians, who spoke Arabic, were all Monophysite, as well Jacobite Christians. The Monites, spoke Arabic, but in their churches ,it was Syro-Chaldaic. They were located around Mount Lebanon and Beirut. All were Monophysite, (Catholics). The Druse, and the Mendaties, or Ben-i-Yahya, too were located around Mount Lebanon and the Sanjak of Hauran & Basra. They were all Sabaeans. Themain aim of these, other than Muslim races was to disrupt and destroy the Empire.

The first to go were the “Janissaries“. This will be explained later, as to why they were, axed.

Now , to have a brief insightin the administrative set up of the Empire, is also a must. Muhammad The Second, the Conqueror of Constantinople in 1453, had created a very free set up,with not much of red tape, as the term goes. He presided over all key matters, and led the army too .The administration was composed of “Kazas” or Cantons, under command of a Kazi. The Sanjaks, or departments, came under Alia Beys or Mir-i-Livas(Colonels and Brigadiers) with one horse-tail banners. The Vilayets were under, Bey- Ler –Beys Pashas with two-horse tail banners. In war times all Bey-Ler-Beys served under theGrand-Vezier. The title of Vezier was also held by six or seven persons, They all met under a “Kubbe” or a Dome,(Cupola) as the Hall of the Divan had a massive Cupola. The Veziers were also Pashas, with three-horse tail banners. Here it should also be kept in mind that prior to the reforms of 1839,the Empire was much larger and had more Christians,.The Arabs were cut off after the Arab revolt spearheaded by T. E. Lawrence, and the new party which now rules Arabia,(Saudi Arabia).

The Christians hated the Turk, because, he had taken over the capital of their Eastern Roman Empire.In 1529,he was at the gates of “Vienna” Austria, and Khair Ud Din called Barbarossa had made the Mediterranean Sea a Turkish Lake.

In 1683,the brilliant, “Kara Mustapha“, the Grand Vezier, with an army of 500,000 was again at Vienna. This time, he wanted the conquest of the whole of Germany, and create an Ottoman Province, from Rhine to Danube. The weak ruler, Muhammad the Fourth, could not bear the Grand Vezier. So, planned his destruction while Kara Mustapha led the army but in history such fickle minded weak rulers have always existed. Hence in the middle of the war, Kara Mustapha was executed at Belgrade, by the cowardly Sultan’s orders. Eventually, the Turkish Army deposed him, and brought forward, Sulaman The Second. Now, the “Jannissaries” revolted. All these events were manipulated & led by a constant interference of thesuper powers, and the Christian population, as well the Jews, ended in the 1839 and 1856 Reforms. By 1821,the Greeks had revolted on the behest of the Russians. It was only the timely help of Mehmet Ali, the Pasha of Misr(Egypt),who saved the day by the Protocol of 4 April 1826,signed,at St. Petersburg, on the behest of British, vide this Treaty, Greece was to be governed by its own elected authorities and would have independent commercial relations. The further end on Turks by the superpowers came at battle of Navarino, on the 20th Oct.1827.With this came the axe on the “Jannissaries” and the end of the main fighting force of the Turks.

Poor leadership, always destroys, an organization which it is unable to control, and then dies its own death. Anew leadership, controls the events, and leads the same nation, once declared dead by all, on a new path.

Ruining empires and nations, is and has been, the policy of various pivotal powers of the past, present and will be of the future, too. unless we awaken up to these facts of life, and counter the moves. The nations are always mislead by propagandists, working in various modes and using different means of implementing their ends. the unwary and unwitting gullible people are taken for the high jump, where the damage has already been done, as is, in our case; we must arise to these problems and re-adjust our thought process.

We study history, or political process, which is an ongoing event with a purpose. The point of all drawing room discussions is to exchange ideas and arrive at some mental conclusions. If a debate continues without an end, it is a waste of time, and effort. The purpose to my mind is, we should, analyze and try to stay away from something which has been proven a failed experiment, as was, and is, the case of secularism, in Turkey. Hence these articles, are meant, to give, a reader more insight into the course of events which led to the situation at hand in a brotherly country.

Our people fail to understand that, the political events are a chain of events ,which, a player had played in the past, and they affect our lives to in one form or the other, even now so, instead of remaining a “pawn in the game”. We too, should do something about it rather than be used by others.

The present policy, is the old “Statesman “policy being used on us, the power players in this case, subvert the loyalty of the victim nations population from its governments, which eventually travels down to the very foundations of the country’s military power. THIS is in reality the final objective, in the first place. A militarily weakened nation is then targeted, and destroyed by dismemberment or balkanization, to use a more current terminology. But this term, remember originated from the nation that was the Osmanli Empire till the last century, the Headquarter of our Muslim Khilafat. The present case study, the scourge of the west had been it’s “Jannissaries”. A corrupted Turkish word, from the word, “Yenni-Cheri” or the new troops .The entire corps was commanded by the “Agha” of the Yennicheri, called “Oj Ak“(the hearth).It was divided into “Ortas” or units, of varying numbers. The “Oda” or the room, was the name given to the barracks in which they were lodged. Sultan Sulaman The First, had organized them into 196 orta’s, divided into three classes, “Jemaat’ had 101,ortas;Beuluk,had 61,and,Sekban had 34 ortas. There were also additional 34 ortas of apprentices. In the peace times, the ortas were 100 men strong, in war times 500.

The distinction, between the different classes, was in duty, they performed,. The Jemmat; or the “Yaya Beiter” were charged with the frontier duties, The Beuluk, had the privilege to serve as the Sultan’s guards, and kept the sacred banner in the war and the peace. The sacred banner was the flag of The Holy Prophet.

Until 1574, the effective strength of the Yennicheri, including the Ajami ,was not allowed to exceed 20,000. In 1805, they numbered 112,000.and at the time of their destruction they were 135,000.

The ‘Yennicheri’ were spread all over the Empire, guarding all the vital places. It was this fighting machine which was destroyed by, the weak and cowardly Sultan Mahmud The Second, on the orders of his mentors ie the powers. And, they want to disband our armed forces too.

Let us have a better insight into the function of this remarkable institution, which kept the Empire in one piece while it was in existence. The Code of Conduct, was a creation,which only effected them. Implicit obedience to the officers, perfect accord and union among themselves, abstinence from luxury, Islam was the code, enforced by the rules of “Haji Bektash” a learned, pious Muslim, saint.

Yennicheri, were entitled to special rules ,regarding, a death penalty, if awarded to them, promotion was by seniority. They could be punished and admonished by their own officers. Only the infirm and unfit were pensioned off. They were not allowed beards, nor to marry, nor to leave their barracks, or engage into trade , but to spend the time in drill and in the practice of the “art of war”.

In the time of the peace, the Janissaries (Yennicheri) could not carry arms, but were armed with clubs, only in the frontier were they allowed arms in peace times.

The Janissaries, banner, was of white silk, on which verses from the Quran, were embroidered, in gold. This banner was planted besides the “Agha’s” tent, in the camp, with 4 other flags, in red cases and a three horse tail banner/standard.

Each orta, had its flag, half-red and half-yellow & placed before the tent of its commander in the start. The Janissaries, bore no other, mark of distinctive nature, save a white turban. This was converted into red with gold work on it. The officers had the difference in the color of the boots, the commanding officers, of the Beuluk, wore red boots, the others yellow,while the junior wore black.

Thus on 10 June 1826, Mahmud The Second, ordered the destruction.A fatwa, was issued by the Shaikh-ul-Islam, the flag of the Holy Prophet was “unfurled” and Ibrahim Agha the Artillery Commander opened cannon fire on the barracks. They were asked to ‘’surrender’’, which was replied with the cry of “Olmaz” (never or not possible). None survived, the massacre, the barracks were burnt down, men burnt, but none pleaded for mercy. Such was the unity and discipline, amongst them. The rest of 135,000, men too met the fate as stoically. All over the Empire. The reason being the flag of the Prophet had been “unfurled” on them by a devious Sultan. The cause of non resistance was that the Jannissaries, had been the custodians of the same flag, in the past. It was the “unfurling ” that created special circumstances and was the signal of the final act,” to do or die.” for it. Thus died the manhood of the Empire .With its destruction ended the State, eventually, which had been the gravest threat to the whole Europe, within a year, the powers of the West had forced the ill-fated Sultan by “The Treaty of London’’,6th July 1827, to grant autonomy to Greece. And to be governed by a Prince of their choice(Christian).

With the destruction of ‘Yennicheri’, Mehmet Ali, Viceroy of ‘’Egypt’’, too revolted and was at the doors of Istanbul, from the Eastern and Southern side. He was made by these powers, a hereditary ruler of Egypt ,by a ’’farman’’ issued by the new Boy Sultan, Abd- ul -Majid(1839-61)Through him these powers introduced, edicts ,called “tanzimats “,much to the pleasure of the merchant classes and traders of the Empire, who were all Christians & Jews, for whom all these efforts in the breakup of the structure were done, through the hands of a doomed Sultan, named Mahmud The Second. Followed by a equally ill omen ed ruler.

CONTINUED…..

(The writer has over 26 years of experience in Investigative Historical Research)

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To understand the implications of secularism, if ever implemented in Pakistan and it’s results, the best analogy can be of the Turkish Ottoman empire (Osmanli). As presently, most of our modern intellectuals are influenced by secularist thoughts. The result, no doubt of studies and findings written by a western mind, which has absolutely no grasp of issue at hand. By this, I also mean our own people, who think as per the perceptions of the alien, yet remain Pakistanis, by virtue of a citizenship. It is their schooling and lack of in depth study which leads them astray, as I have repeatedly written, that, the change of educational pattern has been the root cause of our intellectual decline. An almost similar phenomenon was found in the Turkish Empire too.

A study of history or a past, lays bare the mistake of others, a rational mind must study and analyze these faults, and try and steer himself of similar problems and, voice them for an inbuilt dangers, it brings, to an old historically established entity, with it’s culture, custom, traditions and language. All, totally battered, yet the spark still remaining which can be rekindled. Hence this discourse, or article.

To give an insight on the Turkish dichotomy, in all aspects especially after the, “Tanzimat “edicts of 1839 and 1856, I will extensively quote from the little remaining works of ,”ZIYA GOKLAP”, also known as Zia Keuk Alp, a Turkish writer(1876-1924),the recurrent theme in his writings, was the question of how, the Turks should adopt the western civilization, and how this effort should be harmonized with the Turks. That is, the two historic traditions, their Turkish, and Islamic backgrounds, or in other words, what the Turk as a nation and Islam as their religion would look under the condition of contemporary civilization. Goklap, was not the only one, who had raised this issue, others too had anticipated or influenced him. Although, he had died in the early phase of Mustafa Kamal’s drastic reforms, from which the Turk is still reeling from and slowly, reverting back to his roots(Islamic).Which shows, that in the end, you cannot impose, “ideas” which have no bearing on a nation which has old foundations/roots and a past history, infusion of new races is, but, a process, but as long as the base of the pyramid remains and retains a dim memory and still retains it’s old language, a revival can always take place.

A nation devoid of roots, is like a ship without a rudder, to steer it in the high seas, which being uncharted too. It is thus, the job of a writer, to show his reader a path or give some directions and then, leave it to them, to decide to adopt it, or not, as they deem it proper.

Mustafa Kamal’s extreme and drastic secularism cost the Turk his true identity ,and he lost his roots, his dress and insignia, but the laws of Allah are eternal, you always revert to the original at one epoch of time or the other, under a new leadership and for the better.

Though Ziya, was guilty of adding in the new Constitution, the clause of secularism, as he was the member of a committee which had prepared the new Constitution in 1924. He, for this is held and blamed by the critics for Turkey’s political misfortunes. The bulk of Zia’s work suffered and were lost as, the root was a change of script to the Roman mode of alphabet, a process started later, after the death of Zia by Mustafa Kamal and Ismet Pasha.

We too, today find ourselves on the crossroads, our intellectual harps and argues for the western mode of education, the funds are unlimited and by now, we have people trained to implement these policies, a major effort and implementation has already been done in guise of modernization and rooting out the mode of Urdu medium education is on the anvil to be hammered into oblivion. By assent of powerful people, clueless of our past.

In the Turkish history, in the mid 19Th century when Freemasons were taking roots, our lands were being annexed by the British and, we were to face a despotic English Rule for another 100 years. Freemasons cultivated and launched Mustafa Kamal Pasha to secularise Turkey. A rule which ransacked and destroyed our society and has made and left us with many a breaches or divides in our nation. By leaving open the Pandora’s box filled with creations of the British Policies which unfortunately, we still, unwittingly adhere to.

The Turkish intelligentsia, was beset with European ideas as they strove for a change, for the sake of change, hence developed various pressure groups with vested interests as will be explained in the subsequent articles, which forced, “The Sultans”, to bring changes but here it should be borne in mind that it was not the actual Turk, who was actually clamoring for the change, but various alien races which then composed more than half the population of the Turkish Empire ,led by various schools of thoughts with different ethnic backgrounds and religions too. So attempts with the help of the then super powers were started, to reorganize the political, legal and administrative structure of the Turkish Empire. To understand the background of this agitation, termed as “Tanzeemats”, or reforms, one must first understand the composition of the Turkish Empire. At the start of the 1900s, the Osmanli Turks numbered only ten million out of which one and a half million lived in the western lands i.e. the Balkans, the Arabs numbered seven million and three hundred thousand were Jews. The rest of the population was composed of various Aryan races, the Slavs, Serbs, Bulgarians, Pomaks and Cossacks, Greeks, Albanians and the Kurd who were Muslims. Muslims in the Empire in the above mentioned time were just 50% and the rest 41% were Greek Orthodox Christians, 6% were Catholic Christians and the rest 3% were jews, Druses, Nestorians etc. In the European provinces, two third of population were Christians, and only one third were Muslims. The total population of the Turkish Empire in 1910,including Egypt and other regions nominally under the Sultan’s sovereignty was 36,323,539.Averaging 25 to the square mile in the Wilayats (Provinces), however, directly under the Turkish Government were only almost 26 million people.

In view of the above, to understand the secular movement as stated earlier, one has to understand the pressure groups, by virtue of which, the population of various cities then was, Istambul (1,150,000),Izmir (250,000),Baghdad (145,000),Damascus (145,000), Alleppo (122,000),Beirut (118,000), Adrianople (81,000), Brusa (76,000), Jerusalem (56,000), Kaisarieh (72,000), Karbala (65,000), Monastir (53000), Mosul (61000), Macca (60000), Homs (60000), Sana(58000). These were the cities with above 50000 population. In the first decade of the 20th century the possessions of the Sultan in Europe were stretching continously across the Balkan Peninsula from the Bosphorus to the Adriaticc lying on the East mainly between 40 degree and 42 degree and in the West between 39 degree and 43 degree north. It corrosponded roughly to the ancient, Thrace, Macedonia with Chalcidice, Epirus and a large part of Illyria which construed the administrative divisions of Istambul or the previous HeadQuarters of the Eastern Byzantine Empire of the Romans.However, in December 1898,Crete was granted independence under the protection of none other but Britian,France,Italy and not to miss Russia the old foe of the Turks.In fact these were the outer pressure groups which were instigating and had also instigated and forced the then Sultan fifty years back when the reforms were first announced. Egypt,though still, nominally,under the Turkish Empire was almost independent since 1841 and the British had become it’s big brother since 1881. Hence the independence of the egyptians from the Turkish Empire was no independence at all as they had gone from a muslim rule,under the Sultan, to the Christians,under the British. In Africa,the two remaining main cities were Tripoli and Ben Ghazi. So we see the reforms which were the forerunner of the eventual secularism had started almost 75 years before the clause of secularism as it was, inserted in the Constitution of the Turks. The bulk of the cities above quoted had the population of various sects of Christians which were the standard bearers of the eventual turn of the events.

(Naveed Tajammal is a historian with no parallel. He is researching in history for over 26 years. Although his area of focus is Indus Basin and the Muslim History but he has an equally good command over world history).